Can't Get Enough (Dragon Kin) - G.A. Aiken Page 0,37

of the puppy!” Although her puppy seemed more than happy to spend his time during the day with the pack of dogs who had free rein of the castle grounds and surrounding forests, only to appear suddenly at her feet during mealtimes, clearly expecting to spend that time in her lap with food at his disposal.

Once she’d awkwardly mounted Nightmare—she really would have to learn to do that a bit better—he immediately took off at a full gallop. She didn’t mind; she liked how it felt. Together they made a quick turn around the grounds right outside the castle before heading out to the lake. Once there, Shalin dismounted just as awkwardly and fed him apples from the leather pouch she’d tied around her waist. While she did, she chatted with him and petted his head and neck.

Eventually she held up the last apple and said, “I’ll give you this apple…if you promise to stop hitting Ailean in the head with your hooves.”

The horse snorted and turned his head away.

“Oh, come on!” she laughed, until he startled her by charging back a few feet before turning around.

Standing in front of her, Nightmare rose up on his hind legs and Shalin prepared herself to shift.

She stepped beside Nightmare and the twin males examined her from head to toe. They were fire dragons, but she didn’t recognize them.

“He’s protective,” said one.

“Aye. That’s good,” said the other.

She placed her hand on Nightmare’s neck to calm him. “Who—”

“Is Ailean about?” one of them asked abruptly.

“Castle.”

They nodded and walked off. One decided to push the other, so the other pushed him back. Then there were headlocks and fists thrown—all while they kept walking.

“They’re like that—constantly.”

Shalin turned at the new voice and grinned.

“Daddy!”

Ailean dived for his blade, but Kennis slammed her lance down in front of it and raised an eyebrow. “You’ll need to be faster than that, cousin.”

He hated training with the twins. They were brutal and fierce and bloody mean. But he and his brothers knew—if they could hold their own with the twins, they could defeat anyone else. Kennis and Kyna were, by far, the greatest warriors of their clan and the most deadly of the Battle Dragons of Dark Plains.

Still, training with them was never fun.

He sensed but never heard Kyna as she moved up behind him and brought her lance toward his head. Kennis went for the legs.

Before the twins could even fly, they’d taught themselves how to fight in tandem. With fourteen older brothers, they really had no choice. They could use almost any weapon, but favored the lances they’d designed and helped forge themselves, which could adjust to their smaller human size or extend when they were in dragon form.

Ailean maneuvered back, reaching for the lances but below the always-sharpened steel tips. Yet, like him, they sensed it and quickly adjusted, Kennis now going for his head and Kyna going for the legs.

He ducked the blow aimed for his head, but Kyna took him out at the legs, dumping him on his back.

Each slammed a foot against his chest and grinned down at him. “Sloppy, sloppy,” Kennis chastised.

“Perhaps he has something—”

“Or someone.”

“—on his mind, eh, sister?”

“I say we put him out of his misery.”

“Good idea.”

Together they raised their battle lances and Ailean cringed. They’d never kill him, but one never knew what damage they would decide to do.

“Oiy! Female!”

Kennis lowered her weapon and turned. When she saw her mate, she squealed, dropped her lance, and charged toward him, throwing herself in his arms.

“Don’t make me come get you,” Kyna’s mate warned.

She snorted at Ailean. “Lucky for you.” Then, like her sister, she dropped her weapon and charged her mate, landing in his arms.

Ailean raised himself on his elbows and stared at the quartet. How Kyna and Kennis had found their true mates with another set of twins, he had no answer. Especially when sets of twins were as rare among his people as white dragons.

“Oiy,” he said to the males. “What are you two doing here? You’re supposed to be watching old Baudwin.”

“We did and we are. We left him by the lake with his daughter.”

Ailean stood, and Arranz, still bleeding from the head wound Kennis gave him, and Bideven, still limping from one of Kyna’s blows, walked over to him. “What about that?”

“What about what?”

“Her father. Here.” Arranz gave a little smirk. “You going to tell him what you’ve been doing with his daughter the last few nights?”

“I find it amusing you didn’t think we’d know,” Bideven sardonically